Welt support



June 15, 1954 A o 2,680,902

WELT SUPPORT Filed Feb. 6, 1948 Patented June 15, 1954 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE WELT SUPPORT Joseph A. Amico, Rochester, N. Y. ApplicationFebruary 6, 1948, Serial No. 6,597

1 Claim.

Millions of shoes are made with a so-called Goodyear welt in which theso-called welt is stitched to the inturned margin of the upper of theshoe. The sole of the shoe is then stitched to the welt. That is, thestitches that hold the sole on do not go through the upper or any partof it, but only go through the welt and the sole.

More recently millions of shoes are made in which the sole is notstitched to the welt, but is cemented to the welt and to the bottom ofthe shoe. In order to make a perfect job of cementing the sole to thewelt, the welt should have some support that will hold it againstyielding when the sole is pressed against it in the cementing process.

I have invented a welt support that is placed on top of the welt andbetween the top of the welt and the upper of the shoe where it joins thewelt and while the last is in the shoe, the combination of the last andthe welt support holds the welt firmly against yielding when the sole ispressed against the welt.

Another object of the invention is to make this welt support in the formof an angle strip that can be bent to conform to the curve or the shapeof the shoe so that it will be nested in the angle between the welt andthe upper of the shoe.

Another object of the invention is to make this Welt support of an anglestrip having a horizontal and an upright member, the horizontal memberbeing cut away at frequent intervals to form separate small plates eachattached to the upright member so that the upright member can easily bebent to make it conform to the shape of the shoe as above set forth.

Another object of the invention is to punch each separate plate to formtwo teeth or tacks in the plate which teeth extend downward from theplate which teeth can be engaged in the welt, which teeth hold the weltsupport firmly in place on the welt, with the upright member of itfirmly in engagement with the upper which in turn is pressed against thelast.

These and other objects of the invention will be illustrated in thedrawings, described in the specification and pointed out in the claim inthe end thereof.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a blank piece of sheet metal fromwhich a welt support is formed.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a piece of finished welt support.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the shoe and the Welt support in placeon the shoe.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the toe of the shoe with the weltsupport in place thereon.

Figure 5 is a cross section of the shoe and welt showing the same weltsupport of Figure 2 bent in a different way.

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the welt support as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 7 shows an improvement on the preferred form shown in Figure 6 inwhich an inclined brace is formed between the two sides of the angle, ineach section of the support.

Figure 8 shows a modification of the welt support shown in Figure 2, inwhich one tooth is formed in each section instead of two.

In the drawings, like reference numerals indicate like parts.

The welt support is formed from a strip of thin sheet steel havingparallel edges as is shown in Figure 1. This strip is first bent on aline that is parallel to the edges of the strip to form an angle, havingan upright member i and a horizontal member 2. The upright member isbent over to the extent of about 105 so that it makes an angle of aboutwith the horizontal member 2. The horizontal member is cut to formrecesses 3, 3 as indicated in Figure 2. Between the recesses are leftthe plates d, 4. The recesses 3, 3 makes it possible to bend the uprightmember l of the angle so that it can conform to the outline of the shoeas shown in Figure 4.

Thereafter the teeth or tacks 5 and 6 are formed in each of the platesl, Al.

After the welt support has been formed in this way one end of it isplaced on the welt and the upright member I is pressed against the upperof the shoe which upper is supported by the last inside of the shoe. Theteeth 5 and 6 are pressed down into the welt by grasping the plate 2 andthe welt between the jaws of a pair of pliers.

After one end of the welt support is fastened in place on the welt inthis way, the support is laid around on the welt close against the upperand each consecutive plate is fastened to the welt by pressing the plateand the welt together with the jaws of a pair of pliers. This pressesthe teeth of the welt support into the welt. This is preferably doneafter the last has been put in place.

While the welt support is being put in place on the shoe the shoe can beheld in one hand and the welt support can be placed with the other hand.As soon as the welt support is fastened at one end, it can be pressedinto place on the welt by the thumb of the hand that holds the shoe andthe pliers can be manipulated by the other hand.

The operator presses each plate separately against the welt support withthe pliers so that in a short time the welt support is applied to thewelt for the purpose of cementing a half sole to the shoe or will beapplied in a longer time if a full sole is to be cemented to the shoe.

After the welt support is in place, then the shoe is placed in the pressand the cement is applied to the bottom of the shoe, and cement is alsoapplied to the sole and the sole is then laid on the shoe, the shoebeing preferably in an inverted position. Pressure is then applied tothe sole by a press such as is shown in Amicos Patent No. 2,385,398 ofJune 9, 1942, pressing it firmly on the bottom of the shoe and on thewelt, so that the sole firmly adheres to the shoe and the welt, a totalpressure of about 700 lbs. is used on the sole and the welt is heldagainst some of this pressure by this welt support. The

sole and welt are then trimmed. Because of the welt support, the weltmakes a smooth close joint with the sole all the way around after thesole and welt are trimmed.

As shown in Figure 6, I have shown the welt support with the plates andteeth, formed in the same way as is shown in Figure 2, but the strip isbent to conform to the shape that is shown in Figure 5, in which '1indicates the margin of the welt support that in inserted between theupper and the welt and 3 indicates the margin of the welt support thatis placed on top of the outside of the welt, with the teeth 9 engaged inthe welt.

In either case, the welt support is removed from the shoe by insertingan awl under the end of the welt support so that it is lifted away fromthe welt and then it can be easily ripped off the welt.

The preferred form of this invention is shown in Figure 2. The uprightmember 1 is somewhat narrower than the width of the plates 2. These weltsupports are made in separate strips of from nine inch to fifteen inchlengths, according to the size of the shoe that they are to be used onand the width of the upright and horizontal members varies according tothe dimensions or width of the welt on ladys and mens shoes.

These welt supports can be made so cheaply that each support is used onone shoe and can then be thrown away.

An improvement on the preferred form is shown in Figure 7. In this formthe teeth or tacks 5 and 6 are formed as above described in connectionwith Figure 2 and are placed possibly a little further apart than isshown in Figure 2. Between the teeth in each section a brace is formedbetween the horizontal member 2 and the upright member I. This is doneby pressing the metal at the angle from the back transversely to theangle. The metal is stretched in so doing without necessarily breakingor cutting the metal, and the brace so formed gives a rigid set to theupright and horizontal members of the angles with reference to eachother. When this form of self support is in place on the shoe as shownin Figure 4, the welt is all the more firmly held in place to resistpressure when the sole is pressed on the welt.

It will also be understood that these supports are preferably fOrmedfrom sheet steel of about .021 in thickness, more or less. It will alsobe understood that this welt support can be put in place on any type ofshoe regardless of the curves that are given to the sole when itconforms to the last contained in the shoe, which curve is already inthe welt.

I claim:

An angle iron stock for a welt support comprising an integral angle ironhaving two sides disposed at an angle of 90 to one another, one side ofwhich is of continuous and of uniform width, the other side beingdivided into sections,

a brace between the middle of each section and the opposite side andacross the 90 angle of the angle iron, said brace being formed bydeforming the metal transversely of the bend and into the angle, twoteeth formed in each section and struck from the metal thereof, saidteeth extending away from the aforesaid continuous side.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date Re. 16,115 Schafley July 14, 1925 453,985 Seaver June 9, 1891504,520 Davis Sept. 5, 1893 646,777 Wilson Apr. 3, 1900 1,060,452Harrington et al. Apr. 29, 1913 1,073,570 Keighley Sept. 16, 19131,536,575 Emery May 5, 1925 1,925,353 Apple Sept. 5, 1933 1,937,997Townsend Dec. 5, 1933 2,003,448 Kruse June 4, 1935 2,429,255 Ashley Oct.21, 1947 2,440,412 Melchionna Apr. 27, 1948 2,448,165 Wright Aug. 31,1948 2,567,790 Schaffan Sept. 11, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number CountryDate 242,765 Great Britain Nov. 19, 1925 602,013 Great Britain May 18,1948

